JAPAN RENEWS EXPORT QUOTAS

Japan has renewed a voluntary agreement to keep the number of cars it exports to the United States at the same level for another year, the administration announced Wednesday.

The agreement limits Japanese auto exports to the United States to 2.3 million units for another year.

The Reagan administration has been pressuring Japan for some time to make trade concessions on opening markets to U.S. goods, and thus head off growing protectionist sentiment in Congress.

The Japanese government also is interested in generating a more cordial atmosphere for the May economic summit, the annual meeting of the seven industrial powers, which will be held in Tokyo.

The current restraint agreement, which marks the fifth year of Japanese auto import quotas, expires at the end of March. The first agreement held U.S. imports of Japanese cars to 1.68 million units for three years. The second agreement boosted the level to 1.85 million units in 1984. Last year the Japanese raised the number again to 2.3 million units.

In a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone last December, 13 U.S. senators warned: "The current international economic and political environment demands that current restraints on Japanese auto exports to the United States should be extended until such time that there is an increase in U.S. exports to Japan in several product areas..."

The bipartisan group, noting that the U.S. trade deficit with Japan soared to a record $49.7 billion in 1985, with auto imports accounting for $4.1 billion of that in December alone, said any increase in Japan auto imports would "further exacerbate our already tenuous trade relationship."